A few weeks ago, I mentioned I hadn’t had time to felt my demo piece when we did landscapes at the well-being centre. As well as the general layout, I was showing ways of using some different fibres, like cotton, nylon, plastic and even mohair for effects in the sky, and how to tease apart and fluff up texturey wools or dyed nylon for adding depth and texture. I didn’t really give much thought to how it would look, just showed them all and then piled them on. All I can say is, the locks look nice 🙂 The patch of wool and nylon to the right looks like some green bodied, red headed creature looking over its own shoulder!

I took some fabric strips with me to the wet felting classes the week after for some experimenting. This is the piece I made:

I thought I’d make a bigger sample trying out more of the fabrics. Before I go back to the other well being centre, I want to get a better idea of which fabrics attach securely and will hold up to being handled a lot, which might need some stitching to secure and which will be better for more decorative pieces. This is the whole piece:

And here are some angled photos to show better how they attached and their texture (or not in some cases), left side:

Middle pieces:

Right hand side:

I still have a few more strips I want to try, hopefully I’ll get a chance later this week.

21 Responses to Landscape and Nuno

Your top picture is, to me, a pretty English pastoral scene, with big hollyhocks in the foreground & a hen out for a stroll behind, I can see she is facing right & back & has a darker coloured tail. She’s pretty, or would be with a little handstitching? Does anyone else see that? I did the same test this week Zed, as I have bought new silk chiffon/thin saris & have a nuno scarf class next week – thought I’d check they’d all felt easily, which they did. I wish I’d done my samples your size, then they could become book covers or phone cases too!

Thanks, Jill 🙂
I think I just have a layer of vision missing or something, maybe artistic insight, I can never see those kinds of things! Even when I see other people’s felt piece before and after stitching is added and can see how ‘vague’ a shape is before and how the stitching has transformed it, I just don’t seem to be able to see it for myself. I usually use a standard size for sampling for those reasons you said actually, but for once I’m going to keep these because I always sample then forget!

Ha! I wouldn’t have seen it, but yes, the creature is certainly there! I looked at the landscape before reading your text above it and all I could see were possibilities for picking things out with stitches – for instance, the ‘red head’ is a perfect shape from which to make a flowerhead and the locks could be gladioli. Experimenting with the fabrics prior to the class is a great idea – especially if you’re not sure what the fabric is. I have loads of fabric that looks ok to nuno but as I don’t know what it is (mostly it’s from scarves or blouses, without labels, from a charity shop), it’s always a gamble as to how well it attaches to the wool. I can’t make the photos larger to view, but it appears as if you have the extremes and all between, from the yellow piece that has just ‘melted’ in to the highly patterned piece that would defo need stitches or more fibres on it to start with.

We should start a thread on the forum where we can upload photos, then people can photoshop stitching suggestions in, for people like me who are hopeless! I don’t know what WordPress have changed recently, I haven’t done anything different, it’s a mystery why the photos won’t enlarge when clicked. I was glad the ruffley piece attached so well, it looked like it should even being layered and thick, because it is very open weave, but I didn’t expect it to turn out that good. The back is completely attached and there’s still lots of ruffle and texture.

I like the landscape Zed and I do think a bit of stitching would improve it. I do see the chicken as well. I went and checked out photos and now most of them won’t enlarge. What’s up with that? I guess we’ll have to see what’s going on.

Thanks, Ruth 🙂
I’m torn between saving the sample for demos to show in future, or adding stitches. I suppose I could make a new sample piece. I don’t understand this new change with WordPress it makes no sense. And till I tried yesterday, I could click on the small photos, do ‘copy image location’ and paste in a new tab and the large photo would show.

Thanks, Karen 🙂
Do you mean the larger nuno one? I’m planning to keep this one for referrence. All the time I make samples when I get new fabrics, then forget how each felted! So, I thought I’d better try to be a bit more organised so I don’t give someone a piece of fabric to make a book cover or something and it is all flapping loose at the edges 🙂

I usually make my samples big enough to make a coin purse or small book cover out of, I rarely have such a disastrous result that it can’t be saved with a bit of stitching. But then I give them away or occasionally sell them and then forget which worked!

I like the landscape Zed. I am afraid I don’t have artistic vision either. I can see your devil head and after being told I can squint to see the hen. to me it was a bed of flowers farther back in the picture.
The samples are great. I always loose the samples I make. the second from the left is very interesting with lots of texture but it looks well attached.

Thanks, Ann 🙂
The red part looks like a red Big Bird face to me now! I was so glad that piece worked how I hoped it would, like you say, firmly attached but still kepps loads of texture. I need a huge corkboard for by my table, then I can attach the samples and not lose them!

The locks are definitely flowers, but the red patch looks like butterfly wings to me.
Good idea to make larger samples with several strips of fabric. I have quite a lot of smaller samples of different types of wool by now, that are getting difficult to tell apart. But now I have started labeling them with freezer tape that I can write on, and that sticks surprisingly well to the felt.

Butterfly wings! See, I could never see that kind of thing 🙂 I have a big tub full of smaller square samples, and it isn’t always easy to remember or tell apart. I should have kept a folder on my compter with all the photos. I’ll have to look for freezer tape for labelling, thanks.